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Emerging Markets : Half-year Trading Value Rises 85% To Record High

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The value of American and global depositary receipt, or DR, trading in the first half of 2006 set an all-time high and was higher than all but two full-year totals, recorded in 2000 and 2005, according to an analysis by The Bank of New York.

More than $932 billion of DRs traded on US and non-US markets and exchanges during the first half of 2006, up 85% from the same period a year earlier.

Companies from 21 countries set up 74 new DR programs during the first half of this year, a 25% increase from the first six months of 2005.

“The first half of 2006 was certainly a tale of two quarters,” says Christopher Sturdy, executive vice president and head of The Bank of New York’s depositary receipt division. “Strong returns were posted globally during the first three months of the year, but global macroeconomic conditions and other factors caused markets to fall sharply before finishing up modestly at mid-year,” he says.

“This volatility drove extraordinary levels of DR trading in both US and non-US markets,” Sturdy says.
Companies based in India accounted for the majority of new stock exchange listings globally in the first half of this year, with 25 such listings equaling 56% of the total. Most of the Indian issuers chose to list their DRs on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, although the London Stock Exchange listed three Indian companies and the Dubai International Financial Exchange listed two.